Mental Health and Suicide

Mary O'Hara

In the aftermath of the meltdown that was the 2007/08 financial crisis, millions of people – millions of ordinary people on low to moderate incomes – paid an enormous price. They paid that price, however, not just in terms of job losses or employment security and wages, or indeed the loss of their homes and vital services. As savage austerity measures were rolled out in the UK after the crash, huge numbers of people paid the price way beyond their pockets. They paid it with something much more valuable – their mental health.

No matter where in the world you are, look at the research and the evidence is clear: economic strain contributes to mental health difficulties – especially during recessions when unemployment and poverty tend to jump. What's more, people already living with mental health difficulties are likely to suffer disproportionately in times of recession – not just because funding for services might be cut but also because they are at higher risk of losing their jobs and homes.

The so-called age of austerity has shown just how serious and widespread the impact of economic turmoil on mental health could be. One US study found a 'significant and sustained' increase in major depression among adults between 2005–06 and 2011–12, during which time millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes. Another study exploring the effects of the 2008 financial crash reached some stark conclusions. Analysing data from 24 European Union (EU) countries, the USA and Canada, the researchers reported that by 2011, the economic crisis had already led to over 10,000 more suicides than would have been expected – a figure they called a 'conservative estimate'. The downward trend in suicide rates seen in the EU before 2007 went into reverse when the financial crisis hit, rising 6.5 per cent by 2009. In the USA the rate increased by 4.8 per cent over the same period. Yet the study also showed that the trends were not uniform: many countries did not see any increase in suicide rates. The researchers suggested that a range of interventions – from back-to-work programmes to prescriptions for antidepressants – may reduce the risk of suicide during economic downturns. In the USA, figures published in April 2016 showed a suicide rate at its highest for 30 years with researchers linking the surge in part to financial woes, poverty and job insecurity.

One study in the UK published in November 2015 concluded that austerity, financial strain and unemployment following the financial crash of 2008 were significant factors in suicide rates. The work, by academics at the Universities of Bristol, Manchester and Oxford, estimated that around 1000 additional deaths by suicide occurred between 2008 and 2010 while something like 30 to 40,000 extra suicide attempts may have taken place.

In their important book, The Body Economic, Sanjay Basu and David Stuckler examined health and economic data over decades, concluding that austerity was bad for both physical and mental health. 'If austerity were tested like a medication in a clinical trial, it would have been stopped long ago, given its deadly side effects ... One need not be an economic ideologue – we certainly aren't – to recognise that the price of austerity can be calculated in human lives', was their damning conclusion in the New York Times. They went on to argue that countries that have chosen stimulus over austerity, such as Germany, Sweden and Iceland, have had better health outcomes than countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain, where austerity measures have been used. 'If suicides were an unavoidable consequence of economic downturns this would just be another story about the human toll of the Great Recession', they concluded. 'But it isn't so.'

Greece – a country with traditionally lower suicide rates than other European nations – has felt the impact of austerity more than most. A landmark study led by Professor Charles Branas of the University of Pennsylvania incorporated a 30-year month-by-month analysis of suicides in Greece, ending in 2012. The researchers looked at possible links between suicide data and particular prosperity- and austerity-related events over the three decades, including the acceptance of Greece into the EU, the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the passing of austerity measures by the government.

While cautious not to link the cause directly to austerity, the researchers found 'a significant, abrupt and sustained increase' in suicides following austerity-related events like announcements of spending cuts and violent protests against them. Across the decades studied, 2012 was the peak year for suicides in Greece.

In the UK, from as early as 2011, the charities Sane and the Depression Alliance were reporting concerns about links between financial woes, austerity policies and rising stress and depression. Many organisations and activists began flagging up how a plethora of local government cuts and welfare reforms such as the Work Capability Assessment were creating unnecessary and sometimes intolerable stress for both physically disabled and mentally ill people. The Work Capability Assessment in particular was generating widespread tension, according to many frontline welfare workers and campaigners (see Chapter 3 by...